Roasted white fish wrapped in smoked bacon with lemon mayonnaise and asparagus

Those of you who know me have probably gathered that I often seek to fulfill personal "culinary quests" when looking for new recipes. Two such quests are as follows:

• I'm trying to learn more "weeknight dinner" (i.e. prepared in 40 minutes or less, delicious and nutritious) recipes, because lord knows I do enough fancy 3-hour Sunday afternoon affairs and that won't be viable once I get a real job. Upon finding such a recipe that I really like you might hear me say, "This is going in my weekly rotation."

• I'm trying to find a fish recipe that my lovely but pescephobic girlfriend might choke down without incident. It is my notion that she must eventually be compelled to tolerate fish dinners, dammit, because they're such a good lean source of protein, omega-3 fatty acids, and the like.

I think I might have found a good one here. After all, how could anything wrapped in bacon and slathered with lemon zest and fresh rosemary be too intolerable? And I can prepare it in under half an hour, nice! (Definitely "weekly rotation" material.)

Braised lamb in peach gastrique with sweet potato scallops, baby eggplant, and poached pears

That's right, there's French in the title. We're getting fancy this week.

Actually, this dish isn't nearly as difficult as it sounds. It's certainly time intensive -- requiring a little more than three hours altogether, from start to finish -- but for the most part you're just chopping things up and then throwing them in a pot of simmering liquid. Also, it's relatively cheap and uses lots of fresh, seasonal produce, with the only semi-expensive item being the lamb shank. I don't know about you, but I can certainly appreciate an entree that constitutes a full meal in and of itself -- no soups, sides, or salads needed to round this one out.

I recommend you cook this on a lazy Sunday afternoon, reading a good book or playing vidja games during the recipe's downtime (of which there is quite a bit). Use it to impress your boyfriend/girlfriend/platonic life-mate while saving the money you might have blown going on a date to a fancy restaurant.

Grilled Eggplant and Smoked Gouda Bruschetta

I know, the title alone makes it sound delicious, right?

As I mentioned in my previous post, I've been trying to cook at least one vegetarian meal a week. I've also been trying to use more seasonal ingredients. This recipe, which centers around eggplant, tomatoes, and the grill, fit the bill perfectly.

It doesn't hurt that these open-faced sandwiches are pretty damned delicious. My dad always hems and haws a bit when I announce that it is vegetarian day, but even he wolfed this down and gave me compliments. The components for this recipe are relatively straightforward and easy to assemble, but once you've sampled the gooey melted cheese together with the tender grilled eggplants and the tomato-parsley salsa, you'll wonder why you never thought to combine them before.

You might not think this is enough for a meal -- "bruschetta" usually calls to mind fancy little hors d'œuve toasts -- but believe me, the combination of the ingredients makes this dish surprisingly filling. If my dad is any indication, it's a pretty great main course option for herbivores and omnivores alike.

Butternut Squash Ravioli in Maple-Cream Sauce

I went to the wedding of Emily's cousin a few weeks ago, and for my main course at the reception I opted for the vegetarian dish: butternut squash ravioli. While I quite enjoy butternut squash -- it's among the many things I look forward to in fall -- the idea of stuffing it into a ravioli pouch never really occurred to me. As it turned out, my dinner was quite delicious and so, naturally, as soon as I returned home I decided to try my hand at this pasta-making business.

This particular recipe is adapted from a recipe I found on the Poor Girl Gourmet. I didn't change much, but I figure that I can be a bit more concise in my instructions than the author is. Also my pasta-making technique is better, in my opinion. After all, I have experience with this sort of thing.

 

Baked Sea Bass in Paper

If the picture looks familiar, that's because you've seen it before, in my Asparagus Salad with Sweet Balsamic Vinaigrette post. As promised, here's how you make the entree I paired it with.

This one is another gem I picked out of a Turkish cookbook while living in Ankara. It's quick and easy, requiring only about 20 minutes of prep and 20 minutes preparation -- earning it a place on my weeknight cooking rotation -- and tastes wonderful. My mother claimed it as a new favorite and immediately asked me for the recipe, for what that's worth.

As every cook recognizes, preparing any meat dish requires a touch for retaining moisture. Too much time or heat can result in a dessicated fillet with not much flavor or texture to its name, while too little risks undercooking the meat and leaving you susceptible to all kinds of nasty food-borne illnesses. This recipe sidesteps the dilemma in a unique and effective way: by baking the fish inside a parchment paper packet. Done right, this method keeps all the flavors and moisture trapped inside the steak while cooking it clean through -- resulting in a delicious entree that will earn you many compliments!

This dish is also pretty quintessentially Turkish. Turkish recipes all tend to draw from the same basic group of ingredients and seasonings: lemon, parsley, thyme, red pepper flakes, cumin, tomatoes, onion, and olive oil (making us 6 for 8). Simple, but effective -- just because it's foreign doesn't mean it has to be exotic.

Recipe after the jump:

Simplified Pollo en Pipián Verde (Chicken in Pumpkin Seed Sauce)

Every once in a while I just pick up recipes from random sources on the Internet, copy them to my "Recipes" folder, then forget about them until one day I decide I want to try cooking something new. This is one of those times.

I know next to nothing about Mexican dishes -- they are more Esteban's thing than mine -- but a quick Google search reveals that Pollo en Pipián Verde translates to "Chicken in Green Sauce," which is certainly to the point. If you're a gourmet with some time on your hands, you could take the time to scrounge together the 15 or so ingredients you need to prepare the dish from scratch; if you're a busy/lazy adult who needs something quick and easy to prepare for a weeknight dinner, however, this recipe is for you. All you need is some chicken thighs, pre-made salsa verde, pumpkin seeds, and a pair of zucchinis, give or take a few spices.

Beware, however: salsa verde comes hot. I grabbed a bottle that was rated "medium" and my sauce came out a bit too spicy for my and my parents' liking (even if they were quick to qualify that it still tasted delicious). Granted, I'm kind of a wuss when it comes to hot peppers, but I tend to find that when my mouth feels like it's on fire the sensation completely overrides the other flavors of a given dish -- and this is undesirable. I'd recommend you find a "mild" variant of the salsa, if at all possible... but perhaps you can handle the heat better than me and my family! 

Recipe after the jump:

World's Best Lasagna -- Seriously.

I love lasagna. I used to hate it, because I used to hate mixing foods. I was one of those people who refused to have her foods touching on the plate. But the first time I had lasagna (I think it was my freshman year at Amherst), it was love at first bite. Since then, I have been on the hunt for the perfect lasagna bolognese. I was pretty sure that Pasta E Basta had perfected the recipe - until I tried this.

The first time I had this dish was this past summer with several of my Amherst friends under the direction of recent alum Jordan Gilbertson '10. I made it alone for the first time for my parents and sister, and made it a third time this past weekend for a big family event. Some of the responses included:

"This is UNBELIEVABLE."

"I consider myself a lasagna aficionado, and this is seriously the best lasagna I've ever tasted."

"What did you put in this?! It's amazing!"

"I can honestly say this is the best birthday dish I have ever had." (The Guest of Honor)

"Can you pack some of this up for me to have a 2AM?" (My cousin, a cop on the Friday night shift)

Good cooking tunes - very important!

Have I built this lasagna up enough for you yet? Good. Because it is definitely time consuming, but it is also COMPLETELY worth it. And, best of all, the leftovers taste just as good (maybe even better!) for the next few days.  The original recipe is from allrecipes.com, but there are a couple tweaks I've made that I think make a serious difference, so I'm posting my version. Enjoy with a Caesar salad, garlic bread, and a nice red wine (or all by itself, since it's so hearty ... except, don't skip the wine). Hope you love it!

Mantı: how the Turks do meat dumplings

I'm seeing an alarming lack of good ol' fashioned MEAT dishes on this blog. Also, I promised in my first post that you would see some authentic Turkish dishes from me, so here you go.

Mantı ("dumpling"), pronounced MAHN (as in
"Ma" and "Pa") tooh (as in "woof"), can be found all over central Asia and even into the former Soviet bloc and Northwest China. As might be expected, it is a touchstone of classical Turkish cooking. However, it's not the sort of dish you will find readily in the restaurants of Ankara or Istanbul. That's because mantı, despite being a relatively straightforward food to make, tends to be rather time-consuming and labor-intensive if you want to do it right. The only occasion that I ever had the pleasure to sample this dish in all its home-cooked glory was when one of my Turkish co-workers invited me and some other American teachers into her Ankara apartment for a traditional Turkish dinner.

When you think of mantı, you should picture an assembly line consisting of a Turkish mother and her daughters (and in some cases, her sons) in the kitchen on a Sunday afternoon, laughing and gossiping and talking about the events of the week as they patiently knead the lumps out of the homemade dough, pound out and roll the pasta into thin sheets, and assemble the dumpling pouches with precision and dexterity. For many Turks, the dish is just as much a socio-familial institution as it is a culinary one; that's half the fun of preparing it. It's very much akin to baking a cake/pie or grilling steaks in American culture -- the sort of thing you do with family and friends on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Perhaps the best thing about this dish is how much mileage you can get out of the leftovers. While assembling the mantı is time-consuming, cooking them is not: like any pasta, all you need is to boil some water and prepare a quick sauce. Many Turkish families will spend their Sundays preparing a week's batch of dumplings, storing them in the fridge or freezer to be served on those nights of the week when no one has the energy to cook anything else. I suggest that you do the same -- if your family doesn't gobble them all up like mine did!

So without further ado, here is my personal recipe for mantı, collated from the tips and tricks of my Turkish co-workers and prepared -- in the spirit of the dish -- with the company of my mother.

East, West and Rest

Hi all,

We're going to try this as a husband-wife team effort. We both take turns cooking, Sawa takes the photos and I (Pat) write the posts.

The basic flow of our cooking lives is that we take turns cooking two meals a week and make big ones when we do, so the left-overs usually get us through the rest of the week. We generally alternate between and Japanese and non-Japanese cooking. We try to keep Sundays as a kind of Sabbath day free of major obligations, and if we're feeling motivated after catching up on sleep, we often end up making a big brunch or treats like cookies or ice cream.

This week we'll post one Sunday treat (home-made ice cream), one Japanese meal (soba noodle salad), and one non-Japanese (Greek spanakopita). Maybe in future weeks we'll just focus on one dish... let us know what you'd prefer with your comments!

Go-To Stir-Fry

My first post was a little bit of a challenge. I'm writing from my parents' place in Grapevine, Texas, where cooking the way I like to can be difficult for me. I like to cook with local, seasonal ingredients, and otherwise vegan. Right now, though, I'm in the land of Texas-sized grocery stores and Texas-sized steaks. Plus, my family's tastes are pretty different than mine, so what to make that everyone would enjoy?

My mom loves American-style Chinese food, but it's something she'd rarely try to make for herself, so I decided on the perennial vegetarian go-to: a simple stir-fry. It's simple, it's a crowd pleaser, it's pretty healthy, and it's very flexible: I did up some veggies and tossed mine with fried tofu, while Mom added some chicken for herself and my brothers.

Fillet of Sole stuffed with Shrimp and Mushrooms

Fillet of Sole stuffed with Shrimp and Mushrooms

Hello Amherst foodies!

If you don't know or remember me, my name is Zach and I graduated from Amherst in 2009. My cooking style is pretty much self-taught, drawing occasional insights and techniques from the internet, my mother, my girlfriend, and other sources. I tend to gravitate towards lean meats, fish, and pastas, because these seem to be the types of dishes that I cook best. Since my year teaching abroad in Turkey I've also added some Near Eastern, Middle Eastern, and Greek-ish recipes to my repertoire, so you can also look forward to seeing a few of those in my corner of the blog.

I've already posted this particular dish on planworld and my personal blog, but I'm sharing it again here for good reason: it's really, really delicious. You can substitute nearly any type of white fish for the sole, and the sauce works perfectly well in other dishes without the shrimp/mushroom stuffing. The cheese topping might run counter to some deeply ingrained culinary sensibilities (Italians, I'm looking at you), but I recommend that you give it a try even if you're skeptical.

This one's one of my favorites and I hope you like it too! Recipe after the jump: